By 2050, the European population of 720 million will include 187 million (one quarter) octogenarians. Although living longer is a true privilege, care for the graying population suffering from chronic and disabling diseases will raise enormous challenges to healthcare systems and geriatric education. Are European countries ready to cope with these challenges? An extensive 2006 survey of geriatric education in thirty-one of 33 European countries testifies that geriatrics is a recognized medical specialty in 16 countries and a subspecialty in nine of them. Six European countries have an established chair of geriatric medicine in each of their medical schools. Undergraduate teaching activities are organized in 25 of the surveyed countries and postgraduate teaching in 22 countries under the leadership of geriatricians (n=16) or general internists (n=6). A comparison with data collected in the 1990s shows important progresses: the number of established chairs increased by 45%, the undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activities increased respectively by 23% and 19%. However, these changes are very heterogeneously organized from country to country and within each country. In most European countries, there remains a huge need for reinforcing and harmonizing geriatric teaching activities to prepare the next generation of medical doctors to address the projected increase in chronic and disabled older patients. Several different innovative strategies are proposed.

https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01788.x

Europe‐Wide Survey of Teaching in Geriatric Medicine

While celebrating the 10th anniversary of the European Academy for Medicine of Aging (EAMA), former students and EAMA members identify 10 major factors that led to the success of the EAMA: (i) extremely motivated academic geriatricians anticipating the future care needs of the oldest old Europeans; (ii) EAMA's exclusive goal ‘to teach the future teachers in geriatrics’; (iii) an excellent location in Switzerland with outstanding teaching facilities; (iv) a residential course of four 1-week sessions over 2 years consisting of innovative and contemporary content with the strong involvement of the EAMA's scientific board members; (v) a multicultural melting pot of young, promising geriatricians (from 24 different countries) who constitute the academic geriatric relief of tomorrow; (vi) numerous teachers and experts from all over the world; (vii) permanent and informal interaction between students and teachers; (viii) students’ evaluations show marked progress in regard to scientific content, formulation of take-home messages and techniques of oral presentation before and after each course (over 90% of the participants of the first four courses were promoted and 20% obtained a full professorship in geriatrics); (ix) the well-designed EAMA concept is confirmed and validated with the recent accreditation by the European Community and the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society; and former students constituting a strong international network have been able to launch similar courses in elsewhere (Middle East Academy for Medicine of Aging; Latin America Academy for Medicine of Aging; Saint Louis University Geriatric Academy; and the European Nursing Academy for the care of the olders).

Teaching the future teachers in geriatrics : The 10-year success story of the European Academy for Medicine of Aging

/pdf/geriatrics-is-the-youngest-of-the-big-clinical-disciplines-1muyfvrf4d.pdf

Geriatrics is the youngest of the big clinical disciplines.

N his provocative thought-piece, Dr. Kane suggests that geriatrics is at a crossroads (1). He does acknowledge that attempts have been made to “gerontologize” other fields of medicine but suggests that geriatrics has now reached the point where the next stage in its journey requires redirection to a focus on chronic disease as its defining niche. From my perspective, however, for geriatrics to move forward would not entail redirection but simply reinforcement of our determination to disseminate widely our traditional expertise in chronic disease and related domains—including frailty and other geriatric syndromes. Our geriatric diaspora should spread ever more widely and become integrated as seamlessly as possible into all of internal medicine and family practice, surgery and its subspecialties and allied disciplines, neurology and psychiatry, rehabilitation, and beyond—in short, throughout medicine and the many other health care disciplines engaged in care of the elderly population, all in the interest of improved care of the burgeoning numbers and progressive aging of elderly Americans. The prospect of providing that care in an appropriate and costeffective manner threatens to overwhelm our health care system unless anticipatory changes in education, training, and research are made now and in the near future. However, effectively meeting this demographic imperative both qualitatively and quantitatively also represents the future of our profession. Thus geriatrics represents an opportunity for all the specialties and subspecialties to flourish in the 21st century. Thus I would argue that rather than standing at a crossroads, we in geriatrics are simply still rather early in our journey toward our necessary position of leadership in medicine, still in the lag phase of what is certain to become logarithmic growth and development for several decades to come. As pointed out by Dr. Kane, we must overcome the disincentives, disinterest, denial, and many other barriers to our progress that are so widespread both within medicine and also in the “ageist” world at large, challenges that might discourage all but the most dedicated, determined, and optimistic among us. Yet there are unmistakable signs of progress in our journey toward respect, recognition, and positions of leadership and responsibility. Yes, the number of certified geriatricians continues to decline as many “grandfathers” elect not to be recertified. However, those that do are clearly dedicated and competent, and all those certified since 1994 are not only committed to excellence in care of the elderly population but also have actually been trained to practice expert geriatrics. The quality of our national meetings improves year by year. The sophistication and results of our research are receiving recognition, and competition for funds from the National Institute on Aging becomes keener each year. Our leading journals are becoming more selective as the quality of submissions improves (2). Finally, those who choose geriatrics clearly recognize and embrace their role as ambassadors, pioneers, and pacesetters; these are forward-looking physicians whose contributions as academic and community leaders will be leveraged many times over through those whom they teach by precept and personal example throughout long and satisfying careers. So I would urge us as geriatricians of the present and future to press on with our journey along the path we are already embarked upon—to “gerontologize” medicine and our partner health professions in the interest of excellent care of our older citizens.

Commentaries on "The future history of geriatrics: Geriatrics at the crossroads" and author response - Geriatrics at the crossroads - or simply early in the journey?

The European Academy for Medicine of Ageing was founded in 1995 by a nucleus group of European professors: Duursma (Utrecht, NL), Evans (Oxford, GB), Michel (Geneve, CH) and Stahelin (Basel, CH). The aim was to get an adequate postgraduate training under the auspices of an international faculty. A whole curriculum consists of four one-week sessions over a period of two years. In each session student's state of the art lectures, group discussions followed by plenary presentations, as well as the lectures of members of the Executive Board and invited experts are scored and analyzed. Meanwhile EAMA is in its sixth session. The evaluation (comparison of first with last part) shows its great success with an overall improvement of 32%, content of take home messages (28%), scientific lectures (31%) and techniques of presentation (37%). The EAMA has achieved one of its major goals to attract young geriatricians not only from Europe but also from North and Latin America, Africa and Near East. Several networking groups have been established on special fields of interest (e. g. falls, dementia, diabetes mellitus). A recently performed survey showed that about two thirds of the former students have meanwhile taken over a leading (academic) position in geriatrics in their countries.

European Academy for Medicine of Ageing (EAMA)

It was around a decade ago that several heads of geriatric departments (Group of European Professors in Medical Gerontology [1, 2]) envisioned the need for younger colleagues to get an adequate postgraduate training in geriatrics under the auspices of an international faculty. This ‘nucleus group’ consisted of E. Beregi, S. Duursma, J. Grimley Evans, J.P. Michel, A. Ruiz-Torres, H.B. Stähelin and B. Steen. The product of these discussions was the inauguration of the ‘European Academy for the Medicine of Ageing’ (EAMA) [3, 4]. The importance of training an ample future geriatric faculty has certainly not diminished since then. Indeed, the cross-talk and the delineation of specific tasks between internists and geriatricians is still a question of debate [5, 6]. One of the major tasks from the beginning was the creation of a network of past and present students. Meanwhile, three courses (each course lasting for 4 weeks spread over a 2-year period) have been completed and the fourth one has just started, in January 2001. Besides a devoted faculty, two ‘critical success factors’ seem to make up the success of the EAMA: (1) the unique site in Sion (Switzerland) in the well-equipped ‘Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch’ where the courses are held, and (2) the generous support of the Novartis Foundation for Gerontological Research, which enables the recruitment of highclass international teachers. ‘Flashback’ to the Third Course

Back to the Future: The European Academy for the Medicine of Ageing Revisited

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Back to the Future: The European Academy for the Medicine of Ageing Revisited